The Return of the Genius Ranker of All Times

“Damn it, what the hell… I really got involved with the wrong guy. In all my life, I’ve never seen such a ruthless human being. That guy is no human, he’s Satan, Satan!”

How could someone beat him up so severely without even listening to a word?

Of course, he couldn’t deny that he harbored bad intentions, but still, this was way too much.

“…He’s really gone, right?”

Jihad looked around once more before collapsing flat on his back.

His entire body throbbed in pain, and he let out a scream.

Grimacing in agony, Jihad grumbled.

“If only my original powers were intact…”

For some reason, after being reborn, almost all of his powers had been sealed away.

Even the undead he had painstakingly raised had all disappeared.

It was already unfair enough that he had died after being beaten like a sandbag without putting up much of a fight. To make things worse, this time, he had been beaten just as badly.

If only he could fight again in perfect condition, he would definitely…

Jihad flinched.

At that moment, the image of Do-hyeon’s fist and the chilling sword blade flashed in his mind, making him tremble.

“…Can I really win?”

Perhaps it was because he had been beaten so helplessly twice.

For some reason, just thinking about standing up to that man made his confidence wane.

Unwilling to admit it, Jihad kicked a random stone in frustration.

“I swear, one day, I’ll smack that man’s big, stupid head.”

As he was making this vow, or something close to it, a message suddenly appeared.

[You are being moved to the Guardian Room.]

“Huh? What room?”

Before he could even question the sudden message, his vision blinked, and Jihad’s body was transported somewhere.

As the blinding light faded, a new world was revealed.

“Wh-where is this…?”

The dark and dreary cave was gone, and the sight before him was one where countless worlds seemed to coexist.

Clouds and earth connected seamlessly, with an icy region to the left and a lava field to the right.

It felt like it should be out of place, but somehow, it all seemed natural.

Beyond a certain distance, the world abruptly cut off, revealing only part of it, which strangely made it seem even more mysterious.

“Ah…”

Jihad’s pupils quivered as he gazed at the world.

It was undoubtedly the first time he had seen this place.

But why?

“This… this is what it feels like to stand on the surface again.”

Somehow, a sense of peace washed over him.

How long had it been since he last stood on solid ground? How long had it been since he last felt the fresh air?

Jihad fully felt the wind tickling his face. It was a strange breeze that carried both cold and heat simultaneously.

“…Not bad, I suppose.”

After all, Jihad had been practically confined to his hideout.

Compared to being stuck in an underground cave, perhaps this place wasn’t so bad.

For the first time in hundreds of years, Jihad fell asleep on new ground.

* * *

The capsule opened with a hiss, and Do-hyeon stretched his arms out wide.

His joints cracked, and as his body loosened up, he finished a quick stretch and turned on his phone.

[20:12]

“It’s already evening.”

He had logged in at 10 in the morning, and now it was already evening, nearing nightfall.

Still, since he had logged in earlier than the day before, even after playing for a full 10 hours, he still had a day left. Not bad at all.

‘This is why you need to be diligent.’

…Though he wasn’t sure if starting a game early in the morning could really be considered diligence, the world had changed.

Now, diligently playing God of Savior was recognized as part of living an industrious life.

Normally, he would’ve shown extreme diligence by heading straight to the gym, but unfortunately, he had something else to do.

Click.

Do-hyeon turned on his computer and naturally logged onto the God of Savior website.

He was looking for information.

Known as the sea of information, the website greeted Do-hyeon with countless posts as soon as he logged in.

Some of them contained guides for the next city, but that wasn’t what Do-hyeon was after.

[What is a Guardian! A must-read for beginners unfamiliar with Guardians]

[Perfect Guardian Guide!]

[Guardian Tier List]

[Not all Guardians are the same? What is a Divine Beast!]

‘I still can’t believe there’s a Guardian like that…’

The strange Guardian he had just acquired, Jihad Black.

He was looking for information about that guy.

He had already taken preventive measures to keep him from betraying him, but having some information was better than having none at all.

[Title: Guardian Tier List]

[Author: GodOSeDoctor]

-God of Savior is a game obsessed with rankings. Everything in the game is graded in a discriminatory manner.

Of course, Guardians also have ranks.

Commonly used Guardians like Salamanders and Golems are considered rare tier… but that’s basically the highest tier you can expect.

Anything above Hero-tier is practically impossible to obtain… (truncated).

“This is useless…”

Skimming over the things he already knew, Do-hyeon continued to scroll through a few more posts, but most of them were just common knowledge or trivial comments.

Suggestions like “Raising a Guardian is inefficient” or “Here are some decent Guardian recommendations” were all meaningless.

Just as he was about to scroll past a few more, something caught his eye.

Click.

[Title: Want to Obtain a Divine Beast?]

[Author: GodOSeDoctor]

-Divine Beasts are the ultimate partners a player can obtain as Guardians, and they are the most powerful entities available.

Other than being notoriously difficult to acquire and requiring a lot of money, they have no drawbacks.

Well-known Guardians like Celestial Guild’s Pegasus, the Empress’ Emptiness, and the Monk’s Haetae are all Divine Beasts.

Though Divine Beasts are also graded, they are all at least Hero-tier, making them incredibly powerful… (truncated).

Most people ask, “So where do you get a Divine Beast?”

To acquire one, you need one of three things:

1. Insanely good luck that calls forth destiny.

2. A massive amount of money to manufacture that luck.

3. Achievements related to Guardians.

Do-hyeon stopped scrolling for the first time.

‘Achievements…’

It was the mention of achievements that had caught his attention.

Of course, DemRock didn’t have that element.

Or maybe it did, but at least he hadn’t heard of it, even from Purple, who was quite knowledgeable about Guardians.

It might have been nonsense, but it was new information, and it piqued his curiosity.

‘The author is that guy again.’

Honestly, the author also played a part in drawing his interest.

That user, GodOSeDoctor, seemed very interested in Guardians, as they often posted about the topic, and most of their posts displayed considerable knowledge.

So much so that he seemed like a real doctor of God of Savior.

With someone like that, Do-hyeon figured they wouldn’t be lying, at least.

-Achievements are something everyone knows about. You unlock achievements and earn rewards when you accomplish something particularly difficult.

These rewards could be titles, stat increases, or even hidden quests.

Divine Beasts are no different.

If you complete an extremely difficult achievement related to a Divine Beast, you might be granted the opportunity to obtain one… (truncated).

“Hmm.”

Although the post continued with more lengthy details, the crucial information ended there.

There wasn’t any mention of specific drop routes or quest contents.

Well, no matter how knowledgeable someone might be about Guardians, there was no way they’d post such valuable information publicly.

“At any rate, that was quite helpful.”

At least now he knew that acquiring a Divine Beast through defeating monsters was impossible in both DemRock and God of Savior.

There were no such cases.

Instead, in God of Savior, a new route called achievements had opened up as a means to obtain Guardians.

‘It seems like this achievement is related to the recent event… but all I did was clear a dungeon and defeat a boss. Could it really be that?’

As Do-hyeon pondered this, a sudden memory flashed in his mind.

Now that he thought about it, there was something.

Amidst the flood of messages that had appeared after defeating Jihad, one particular message stood out.

[You have unlocked a hidden achievement.]

“Yeah, that’s exactly what it said.”

Finally, the puzzle pieces fit together.

Obtaining Jihad Black as a Guardian hadn’t been due to some random stroke of luck or a weird bug; it was a reward for completing a hidden achievement.

At first, he found it hard to believe that clearing just one dungeon could be considered a hidden piece, but when he thought about it, it made sense.

‘That dungeon was absurd.’

From the hidden location of the boss room in a four-person party dungeon, to the condition of having to be the last one standing, and the impossible difficulty for a level 24 player—it all seemed too extreme.

Everything about it had been out of the ordinary.

On top of that, failing to clear the dungeon would result in its complete disappearance—a brutal consequence.

‘Now that I think about it, clearing it was the real anomaly.’

It was as if the developers had designed the dungeon to be impossible to clear, yet he had somehow done it.

If the developers had been watching that moment, their mental states probably would’ve exploded like fireworks.

In any case, completing that achievement seemed to be one of the hidden conditions for taming monsters.

That meant there could be more boss monsters that could be turned into Guardians in this manner.

‘If I could get a legendary dragon as a Guardian…’

He could surpass Purple’s dragon and achieve even more epic status.

Do-hyeon shook off the daydream of that moment.

Just because he had obtained one Guardian in this manner didn’t guarantee that other bosses could be acquired the same way, and besides, right now, his reality was that he had a mere Goblin as a Guardian.

‘Well… maybe he’ll turn out useful if I train him.’

Still, it wasn’t just any Goblin.

Despite being a Goblin, Jihad was of Hero rank, and though he couldn’t use it right now, he also had a unique trait called Bloodline Factor.

Since he acted like some sort of Black Flame Dragon, surely he’d amount to something.

Whether that something would be a majestic black dragon or a wriggling eel, though, remained to be seen.

Clap.

Turning off the computer, Do-hyeon stepped into the living room.

Now that his curiosity had been satisfied, his stomach growled in hunger.

Of course, after 10 hours without food, it was only natural.

He originally had plans to buy some beef, but… one look at his empty bank account and those plans went up in smoke.

“Mom, is there any food at home?”

“Nope~ nothing.”

The response was not his mother’s refined voice, but an annoyingly chirpy female voice that made Do-hyeon’s eyebrows furrow in irritation.

Hyun-ah, leaning against the living room sofa while watching TV, giggled.

Why was it that seeing her dropping crumbs from the snacks she was eating onto her stomach made him so annoyed?

Was sibling rivalry an inherent human passive skill?

“Where’s mom?”

“She has plans.”

“Did you eat? Go buy some groceries.”

“I already ate. It’s already late, you know. Oh, there’s some stew in the fridge. Mom made it yesterday for you, but you just slept through it, didn’t you?”

“Oh…”

Now that he thought about it, she had mentioned it yesterday.

But Do-hyeon had been too engrossed in God of Savior, having completely forgotten about it in the excitement.

‘Right, I just got out of the army yesterday, didn’t I?’

It felt like it had been at least a week, but it had only been two days.

His ability to adapt to civilian life so quickly was astonishing, even to himself.

The constant flurry of events and accidents over the past two days probably played a role in that.

‘But why hasn’t anyone contacted me?’

Other guys in his unit said their schedules were packed for a full month once they were discharged…

Feeling a bit down, Do-hyeon opened KakaoTalk and scrolled through his messages, but there wasn’t a single unread personal chat.

The only activity was in a five-person group chat…

– Gwak Jae-yeol: Man, I really wanna have sex.

– Kim Doo-hyeong: You crazy bastard.

– Yoo Jong-hyun: Hey, anyone playing Pratel right now? A field boss just appeared.

– Kim Hyun-soo: Yeah, but the guild’s already taking it. You’re not getting a turn.

– Kim Doo-hyeong: When’s Do-hyeon getting discharged? Haven’t heard from him lately, did he die?

– Kim Hyun-soo: I think the bastard finally kicked the bucket. We’re holding a memorial today.

– Gwak Jae-yeol: Oh? One person left the chat. Guess he’s not dead after all. LMAO.

– Kim Doo-hyeong: LMAO

– Yoo Jong-hyun: LMAO

– Kim Hyun-soo: LMAO

“……”

…Maybe I shouldn’t have checked.